Pulp and Sex

Pulp (and the group's frontman Jarvis Cocker) have been among my favorite musicians since I was 16 or 17. They;re to this day one of my favorite bands--the music always sounds fresh and relevant. Perhaps what is so refreshing and exhilarating about Pulp (and Jarvis's solo work as well, but to a lesser extent) is the way the songwriting approaches love, relationships, and sex. Instead of glorifying sexual acts as idyllic and beautiful like so much of the rock canon, Pulp presents sex in all it's messy, complicated, and nuanced reality. The awkwardness of first crushes and fumbling first explorations. Forgotten lovers and high school dreams are portrayed with a slightly cynical and world-weary realist perspective. Indeed, the song entitled "F.E.E.LI.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E" (in an homage, I suspect, to Wire's "Feeling Called Love", the experience of being in love is cast in dark relief. "I've got a slightly sick feeling feeling in my stomach, like I'm standing atop a very high building, oh yes", and "It's not chocolate boxes and roses, it's much dirtier than that, like a small animal that only comes out in the night". Pulp write about sex in truly naturalistic terms that are far more relatable, in my opinion, than much other musical output on the subject. Recently, I saw a documentary at the Film Society of Lincoln Center entitled "Pulp: A film about Love, Death, and Supermarkets" that charted the band's final reunion tour stop in their hometown of SHeffield in 2012. Not only a portrait of the band itself, the film struck a deep chord as a portrayal of Sheffield and contemporary culture in Britain. I highly recommend it and anticipate seeing it again when it has a wider release in November.